Not fast enough.
His body lands upon me with such hefty force all the breath is punched from my lungs, my mouth gaping. A trickle of saliva slides across the back of my throat, making the muscles clamp down like a knee-jerk reaction.
Fuck.
I whimper, shoving at his body, trying to kick him off with my free leg. More saliva pools in the back of my throat. Lightning threatens to crack the sky into shards, and I hear the patter of raindrops before they batter my skin.
My movements become frantic, this trapped feeling inside me swelling.
Swelling.
Get him off—
Cainon’s ripped backward, plonked to the side in a heavy lump, revealing Kolden standing over me with a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. He yanks it down so it’s hanging around his neck, kneels, and pulls me into a seated position.
I dig my fingers down my throat. My stomach clenches, and a flaming surge of bile pours up and out of me in a gushing torrent. I spit, splutter, heave all over a pillow, feeling numerous celestial stares rake across my skin—like they’re watching this show unfold with rapt attention.
Gasping, I tip back, tears streaming down my cheeks, mixing with the rain now pounding upon the pure white pillows, drenching my hair and skin. I cut a glance at the red, slitted eyes as I wipe my lips with the back of my arm, painting it with a poisonous smear.
Call it intuition, but something about them makes me think that particular Godwantsme tochoke.
“Where did you put it?” Kolden barks, and I rip at the tiny braids around the crown of my head, hands trembling, hunting for the petals I stuffed beneath them. When I come up empty-handed, I get onto all fours and begin flipping pillows and throws while Kolden does the same.
A dark realization dawns.
They must have fallen out … Maybe blown away …
I look at Kolden sideways. “They’re not here.”
His eyes widen. “Did you swallow some?”
Maybe I got it out in time …
I nod.
“Fuck,” Kolden growls, pulling his scarf up. He whips another out from beneath his chest plate, wraps it around my face, then sweeps me into his arms.
He spins, and I catch sight of those chilling silver eyes boring through me like a savage pledge. A gaze that follows us until we slip out of sight.
* * *
“Ithink I’m okay,” I say, yanking the scarf off my face. I’m certain it’s making it harder for me to breathe. “You can put me dow—”
“No,” Kolden grinds out between muffled breaths as he powers through eerily quiet hallways with me tucked against his armor. “You’ll speed up your heart rate and pump the bane through your system faster.”
I go to argue, but a cough comes out instead, barking up my throat.
“Fuck,” Kolden hisses, then tucks into a cupboard, slapping a hand over my mouth.
I wrestle the urge to cough again, chest jerking as booted footsteps come, then go. Perhaps a guard making rounds.
Kolden pushes his head out and looks both ways before ripping down his scarf and charging on. I let the cough free—this one wetter than the last.
We make it all the way to the main lobby before my vision starts to split. By the time he’s sprinting toward the door where he usually stands guard, my breaths are gurgling, throat tightening with each restless draw.
I whimper, my stomach turning cold, then numb—the same numbness creeping up my throat much faster than I’d like it to.
Thoughts roll through my head like boulders …
